# Advanced

# Using Unified Prefix URLs in RSS Feeds

Use Backtracks Proxy™'s Unified Prefix URL to get analytics flowing without changing your RSS feed URL. If you have the ability to modify your existing RSS feed, this will allow you to get analytics without needing to change the RSS feed that is referenced by systems and platforms for consuming audio, video, etc.

You will need your Backtracks Proxy™ Unified Prefix URL for an individual series (aka show) to perform these changes. Each series will have a unique unified prefix url.

An overview of the changes, will be to modify the links to your media enclosure URLs (these are the links to your media that is in your RSS feed). Your enclosure URLs will look similar to the following after you complete the changes:

https://bktrks.co/bt/284bb44d9542447fe/https://example.com/file.mp3

From this example enclosure URL (aka URL to your media), the Backtracks Proxy™ enclosure prefix is:

https://bktrks.co/bt/284bb44d9542447fe/

We recommend testing the combined URL with any prefixes in your browser before changing your RSS feed if you are building your RSS feed manually. You will get an HTTP 404 (Not Found) status code returned if the URL is constructed incorrectly or uses a fake/demo/test URL (your actual URLs for the unified_prefix_url will work).

For example, here's one way to use your Backtracks Proxy™ prefix.

https://bktrks.co/bt/284bb44d9542447fe/feeds.example.com/ep1.mp3

Here's another way:

https://bktrks.co/bt/284bb44d9542447fe/https://feeds.example.com/ep1.mp3

# Matching HTTP and HTTPS

In "internet land" redirecting from HTTPS (secure) to HTTP (insecure) is frowned upon. Browsers and apps are increasingly strict and do not allow this. In the past you may have seen a warning or message like "parts of this page are insecure," with the ability to proceed, but over time this will be removed.

We recommend matching the scheme/protocol (that's that's the technical term for what HTTP and HTTPS actually mean) for redirects. The P in HTTP stands for protocol which you may or may not already know.

If you redirect or serve any files under HTTP instead of HTTPS, we recommend making the protocols HTTP (not HTTPS) "all the way down."

For example, if you audio is located at http://example.com/episode.mp3 and the protocol or scheme is HTTP then your redirects or prefixes should look like this:

http://bktrks.co/bt/284bb44d9542447fe/http://feeds.example.com/ep1.mp3

or

http://bktrks.co/bt/284bb44d9542447fe/feeds.example.com/ep1.mp3

Normally your content should be served under HTTPS (secure) and the prefix would look similar to: https://bktrks.co/bt/284bb44d9542447fe/https://feeds.example.com/ep1.mp3 or https://bktrks.co/bt/284bb44d9542447fe/feeds.example.com/ep1.mp3

# Manually Build Unified Prefix URL

If you have a CMS or system that is manually constructing URLs and cannot reference the unified_prefix_url from Backtracks directly (i.e. your systems ask users to manually enter the Backtracks unified_prefix_key). Then you may use a base URL of https://bktrks.co/bt/ combined with the unified_prefix_key to manually build or concatenate data to get the unified_prefix_url (we recommend using a series' unified_prefix_url property from an API response).

Replace the unified_prefix_key in a url template like:

https://bktrks.co/bt/<unified_prefix_key>

With the value from the unified_prefix_key. For example, if the unified_prefix_key has a value of 284bb44d9542447fe then the unified_prefix_url would be:

https://bktrks.co/bt/284bb44d9542447fe